AI engineering glossary · Reinforcement learning
What is exploration-exploitation trade-off?
Exploration-exploitation trade-off (also called Explore-exploit dilemma): The tension between using current knowledge to earn a good score now and spending effort on trying unfamiliar options that might turn out better later. Every learning method needs a strategy to balance the two.
Exploration-exploitation trade-off: an example
Spending 10 percent of ad impressions on new creatives and 90 percent on the current best one is one way of balancing.
Related terms
More Reinforcement learning terms
- Function approximation
- Goal-conditioned reinforcement learning
- Greedy policy
- Hierarchical reinforcement learning
- Hindsight experience replay
- Horizon
- Imitation learning
- Importance sampling ratio
Where you learn it
Exploration-exploitation trade-off is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.